Matt's Bike Thoughts

I took my Salsa Woodsmoke out to the Maryland Mountain trail system, and even with the 27.5+ tires, I could tell I was underbiked, and it was making the whole experience harder than it needed to be. This inspired me to start looking at full suspension mountain bikes, with a wary eye towards geometry numbers. You see, I'd owned a 2019 Jamis Portal A2 before. It was awful. It was slow and uninspiring going uphill or on the flats, and it wasn't terribly confidence inspiring on the descents. The long reach and slack seat tube angle gave me nerve pain in the hands, even with ergo grips, 50mm riser bars, and a 35mm stem. The long wheelbase made it hard to steer and corner. I hated it, and decided that I must hate mountain bikes in general. Then I got on the Woodsmoke, which I loved riding, and that changed everything. The bike was comfortable, efficient, and fast. It was far more fun on climbs and descents, and the shorter chainstays really helped with cornering. Setup as a comfort/t...

 With the downfall of the Cutsmoke , the nice drop bar gravel kit on that bike is going to become available for scavenging. I probably won't build out a mechanical brake gravel or road bike - I'd rather get a nice complete build that has everything fitted out. So, what can I bring over? Brifters - Ultegra R8000 11 speed Hell yeah - the bar end shifters are fine, but the brifters are so much nicer for a road/gravel build. And I don't think it's going to matter much for a road touring bike. I've never had an issue with my brifters, and my bar ends (while reliable) are more annoying and finicky. Brakes - Spyre SLC Hell yeah - the Hayes CX brakes on there currently aren't great. This will drop weight and improve performance. Rear Derailleur ? GRX 812 This is a possibility - I need a rear derailleur to match the Ultegra brifters. The GRX 812 has been fantastic with the 10-42 cassette I've been running. It's a 1x specific derailleur, so I would need for this t...

Alright, it's been about six months with the drop bar Woodsmoke, and I'm on the verge of another change. I've named the drop bar Woodsmoke `Cutsmoke`. Overall, it's been great. I got it fully setup and tuned and fitted for bikepacking. I have not actually gone bikepacking on it due to illness, injury, some work stuff, and a busy life.  Unfortunately, it has some issues as a drop bar bike. The 67.8 degree head tube angle is pretty slack for a drop bar bike. It doesn't feel stable at speed. And the high stack + steerer tube + angled stem feels pretty wonky at speed while descending on the road. It handles rough gravel and singletrack superbly, but it's just not a great application as a road or gravel bike. No shit! Meanwhile, the medium Woodsmoke has been absolutely stellar - with the fast gravel wheelset on there, it's extremely quick. The flat bars work great for the head tube angle, even on gravel. It has a larger frame triangle, so the frame bag is bigger ...